Porsche 70th Anniversary Celebration Film

It took serious determination for a German engineer to start a sports car company in the aftermath of WWII. Ferdinand Porsche Jr couldn’t afford to build them, so he went to Volkswagen dealers and sold them on a dream. A fast & nimble machine that would appeal to buyers who wanted more than a Beetle.

The first few deposits allowed 49 examples of the Porsche 356 to be built by hand in a sawmill in Gmund, Austria. Sales of these allowed Ferdinand to pay his father’s ransom, and the old man was released from a French prison. Their home in Stuttgart was ravaged day & night by Allied bombers, along with their Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg. But the British saw the potential of the Beetle and rebuilt the factory.

Because Porsche designed the little bug, they received a royalty on each one. Given that over 21,529,464 Type 1 Beetles were built, it provided the means for Porsche to build the world’s best sports cars. The old man died of a stroke in 1951, but his son and grandsons have overseen 7 decades of success. If you have never experienced a Porsche 911 for yourself, click the link below and let your adventure begin.